Last year, LISC launched its newest subsidiary, the SBA-guaranteed lender immito, to scale our ability to reach and support underserved small businesses and help spur job growth across the country. Julie Huston, immito’s founding president, is a seasoned small business expert—in fact, she recently testified before Congress re: new budget proposals that would hamper small business entrepreneurs’ access to credit. We caught up with Huston at her base in Denver to learn more about immito, the economic and social power of small business, and why all this is so close to Huston’s heart.

Jonny Price, senior director of Kiva U.S., makes the case for how early-stage loans to small, fledgling businesses can stoke entrepreneurship, create jobs and help narrow the income gap. That strategy can also put a human face—and heart—back into the business of doing business.

Tuesday might have been President Obama’s last State of the Union address. But he made it clear that the work needed to lift families out of poverty is ongoing. LISC’s Matt Josephs considers the president’s remarks from a community development perspective, looking at programs that improve the quality of life in places where Americans struggle to make ends meet.